Win one of 6 x You are Loved Books by Liv Downing valued at $24.99 each.

PSYCHOLOGIST LAUNCHES CHILDREN'S BOOK FOLLOWING HER OWN EXPERIENCE OF BURNOUT

A Melbourne based psychologist, Liv Downing, has drawn on her own personal experience of burnout to release a new children's book, 'You are Loved' to reassure children that they are loved, no matter what.

Coinciding with Mental Health Month this month, the beautiful and timely children's book was created to help children and families navigate, or avoid, situations similar to her own.

"I know the full effects of burnout and its relationship to anxiety, and in my work as a psychologist, I've seen the increased levels of anxiety amongst men and women of all ages. The rates of poor childhood mental health in Australia is alarming, with 1 in 14 children aged between 4-17 years diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. Research tells us we do best when we feel connected, and I wanted to create a book that would help children learn how to access that sense of connection for themselves."

Complete with a nourishing meditation at the back of the book, Liv wanted to share the tool that has provided so much support to her during challenging times in her life.

"Meditation has many proven benefits and should be part of everyone's daily routine, like showering and brushing our teeth. Through meditation, we build our skills of mindfulness, which means we can learn to manage our busy and distractable minds more effectively. If parents can learn to be more present and attuned, children's nervous systems will wire more effectively and as a result it is likely rates of clinical anxiety will reduce. It is not our fault as parents that we are busy and stressed, the pace of the modern world is out of control, but it absolutely is our responsibility to choose another way" she says.

As a mother of two boys, Liv has experienced first-hand the benefits of mindfulness and meditation in parenting. Through her work, she was involved in the development of the Beyond Blue mindfulness-based parenting program, Mind the Bump, and Smiling Mind, Australia's leading mindfulness app – which involved working directly with children and educators in schools.

Seven years ago, Liv experienced the grief of losing her mother, the stress of looking after her unwell father, and the overwhelm of starting a new business – all while parenting her two boys. This combination of factors led to complete burnout.

This was not the first time that Liv had felt like this. She had also been gripped by burnout fifteen years earlier, when starting her career as a graduate psychologist. She found herself in bed, completely exhausted, and feeling disconnected, lonely and unworthy. 

When it happened for the second time in 2015 however, the key difference was that she had built a strong mindfulness meditation practice into her daily life, and rather than feeling disconnected or unworthy, she felt a deep sense of unconditional love carrying her through the physical exhaustion.

"I reflected on why these two experiences were so vastly different, I came to the conclusion that meditation helped me to fully accept myself, no matter what was going on in my life. I wanted to share this discovery. My vision is that kids know, and parents show, that love does not need to be earned and that we are all worthy of love and belonging, no matter what. Decades of research tells us that it is the quality of our relationships and how we are loved that has the biggest impact on our mental health. For me, mindfulness meditation was the pathway to accessing that unconditional love."

'You are Loved', released this month by Allen & Unwin and illustrated by Mel Mathews, comes with a meditation for families and educators to share with their little ones and practical skills to take into their daily lives.  With cut-outs on each page that create a beautiful heart shape, the book is a gift to treasure and share.  Available from leading book stores for RRP $24.99, the book is also the ideal Christmas gift.